Facebook will identify what Russia-linked content you liked
The social network said a new tool for spotting posts from a Russian troll farm will be available by the end of the year.
Facebook is creating a tool to let people see what Russian propaganda they may have followed.
Facebook says it's trying to be more transparent about how Russian agents used the social network to meddle with last year's US election.
On Wednesday, the social network said it's creating a tool that will let people see what content they liked or followed between January 2015 and August 2017 that came from Internet Research Agency, the Kremlin-linked troll farm that tried to influence Americans during the presidential campaign.
The tool will show you what you liked on both Facebook and Instagram , which Facebook owns. It will be available at Facebook's help center page by the end of the year.
"It is important that people understand how foreign actors tried to sow division and mistrust using Facebook before and after the 2016 US election," the company said in a blog post.
Facebook has been under intense scrutiny for the role its platform played in the election. In September, CEO Mark Zuckerberg disclosed Facebook sold $100,000 worth of ads to Russian-linked accounts. Later that month, Facebook said Russian-backed content, which includes also includes unpaid "organic" posts, was seen by more than 126 million people on the social network. That number goes up when you include content on Instagram.
Facebook, along with rivals Google and Twitter, was grilled by lawmakers over the matter earlier this month during three congressional hearings on Capitol Hill.
The tool will have limitations. It will only notify you if you directly followed or liked an IRA post, not if a post from the group simply showed up on your feed because a friend liked it, according to Bloomberg.
Correction, Nov. 24 at 9 a.m. PT: Fixes the day of the announcement.
CNET Magazine: Check out a sample of the stories in CNET's newsstand edition.
It's Complicated: This is dating in the age of apps. Having fun yet? These stories get to the heart of the matter.